March timetable set for 3rd telco bidding

The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) is setting itself a tight March timetable to conduct an auction for the selection of the group that will get the remaining frequencies the government can give to a third telecommunications (telco) player.

DICT officer-in-charge Eliseo Rio Jr. said that a March auction was a workable schedule since it has been making preparations for the entry of another telco provider in previous months.

“That’s very doable,” Rio told The STAR in a phone interview over the weekend, adding that most likely, the agency will issue today a memorandum order directing the National Telecommunications Commission to come up with a draft terms of reference (TOR) within a week or 10 days.

Rio said the TOR would lay down the guidelines for the auction to be conducted by the DICT to choose the group to be awarded the remaining frequencies it has to allow a third telco company to set up shop in the country.

The DICT will then publish the draft TOR and schedule a public hearing where it will gather all stakeholders and their comments and suggestions on possible revisions to improve the auction.

“We’ll finalize that sometime in the first week of February. If the TOR is finalized, we’ll give them maybe up to the first week or 10 days of March to form their groups,” Rio said, referring to prospective bidders.

Rio added that the DICT’s role in helping President Duterte get a third telco player in the country is to prepare the remaining frequencies that are needed by a prospect.

“We only have a few frequencies left. We have to award it to one entity, either to a group of small telcos who can join a foreign partner,” he said.

The auction, according to Rio, will require bidders to come up with the highest investment commitment to set up shop as a telco player for a period of five years.

“It’s all about the highest bid,” he said.

“They will need to have very deep pockets who can compete with Globe and Smart,” he added, pointing out that even local diversified corporate behemoth San Miguel Corp. had balked at entering the telco field with their putative giant foreign partner Telstra of Australia.

“We will give the frequencies to the company or organization that can submit the biggest investment commitment to make use of these frequencies as a company,” Rio said. “But the operation, that’s another story.”